Market Watch: Bitcoin briefly touched $9,000 yesterday but has slipped back down during Tuesday trading. The rest of the market is enjoying this rise in value with most coin prices in the green.
1. The England and Wales High Court has ordered crypto exchange Bitfinex to freeze $860,000 worth of Bitcoin after the funds were traced to a ransomware payment. The victim is reported to have paid $950,000 worth of Bitcoin through an insurance company, which filed the court claim, but was told to pay $1.2 million in Bitcoin after its computers were hijacked by ransomware. Some of these funds were converted into fiat and not traceable. However, 96 Bitcoin, worth around $860,000, were sent to an address owned by Bitfinex. -COIN DESK
2. The Ethereum Foundation has awarded a $650,000 grant to Nimbus to continue its work on Ethereum 2.0, the next significant upgrade to the protocol. Founded in March 2018 by The Status Network, Nimbus first received a grant from the foundation in March 2018, which was part of the Ethereum Foundation Scalability Research and Development Subsidy Program. This latest injection of funding will bring the foundation's total to Nimbus to $1.65 million. The team hopes to use the money to onboard more engineers to develop an experimental phase one implementation, in addition to researching distributed storage solutions for ETH2.0 light clients, and preparing for the implementation of ETH2.0 layer 2. -THE BLOCK
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3. A draft of India's national strategy on blockchain suggests a central bank digital rupee and a national blockchain. The National Institute for Smart Governance (NISG), a non-profit public body incorporated by the government of India, has published a report on the country's blockchain strategy. It proposes a digital rupee that would be issued on a permissioned blockchain. The NISG "strongly recommended" that the central bank digital currency (CBDC) be issued by India's government and the central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). -THE ECONOMIC TIMES OF INDIA
4. A report from the Deutsche Bank has found that cryptocurrency can't act as a substitute for fiat. According to a report, this is because of its high volatility and the risks it presents to political and financial stability. In its Future of Payments report, the bank noted that there was still a long way to go before digital currencies could become the "new cash alternative." The report highlights that the technology is still evolving and that volatility remains its biggest hurdle. -CRYPTOPOLITAN
5. Coinbase and Ripple are joining forces in a group that will drive crypto and blockchain adoption in the U.S. With the launch of the Market Integrity Working Group, co-chairs Breanne Madigan, head of global institutional markets at Ripple, and Rachel Nelson, senior director and associate general counsel at Coinbase, will "support the development of public policy that ensures the transparency and fairness of cryptocurrency markets." -BLOCKCHAIN ASSOCIATION/MEDIUM
6. Former Wall Street trader Tone Vays has said that Bitcoin needs to hold $9,000 for several days before declaring a bull trend for the coin. During the latest episode of his Trading Bitcoin YouTube series, Vays said: "Am I ready to declare a bull market? No." He went on to say that levels above $9,000 and the 200-day moving average need to hold for several days in order for him to declare a bull run. -COINTELEGRAPH
7. Singapore's Payment Services Act has come into force today, which requires all crypto companies in the country to be registered and licensed. According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the new law, which first passed last January, will boost consumer protection and promote confidence in electronic payments. -THE BLOCK
8. Ukraine's Ministry of Finance intends to track crypto transactions over $1,200. Speaking in an interview, Oksana Makarova, head of the ministry, said that a law that was signed last month by the country's president, Volodymir Zelensky, boosts Ukraine's anti-money laundering laws around crypto transactions. As such, the country's anti-money laundering law includes crypto which will be monitored. The level for monitoring crypto transactions is $1,200. -COIN DESK
9. Saudi Arabia's state oil company Saudi Aramco has bought into Vakt, a blockchain-based oil trading company, purchasing $5 million in new shares. According to a press release from Vakt, the platform is currently live in the North Sea BFOET crude oil market. It went on to note that the investment from Saudi Aramco will help Vakt "with further development of the platform and expansion into new markets – particularly into Asia." -REUTERS
10. Financial services company Standard Chartered has invested an undisclosed amount in blockchain-based open industry platform Contour. Built on blockchain company R3's Corda platform, Contour recently went into full commercialization after conducting pilots in 14 countries. It plans to focus on digitally creating letters of credit and hopes to expand its ecosystem to work more with banks in the next phase of its development. -TECH IN ASIA
This newsletter was written and curated by Rebecca Campbell. She has been writing and reporting on various industries for the past 10 years, more specifically tech in the last three. Connect with her on Twitter.
